-takes 2 internal 2.5" drives (I have a pairs of Crucial M4s in mine) out of the box.-mSATA is present-supports 5 external displays (2 of mine are 2560x1440 HP DP ZR2740Ws)-around 6 hours of battery life (verified yesterday)-3 year onsite warranty included-has a 14" 1600x900 display, LED backlit-pretty light IMO-discrete GPU-has DisplayPort out so you can run a hi-res digital connection without a dock

The available dock is also good. There's an advanced one that has a slot for an optical or other HD as well.

I just finished a game of SCII. It ran well enough as well.

Happy so far. The only downside is the shitty LCD, but it doesn't look like you can do much about that right now. I use an external 99% of the time though.

We buy the EliteBook Workstations by the truckload at work and they are excellent.

I wish you the best of luck. The EliteBook 8530w has been a flaming piece of shit in both Windows XP and 7, and our IT department hates them and HP. Horrible support from HP (not returning calls and lying about support), continuous hardware failures, it's been a nightmare. For me, it has been singlehandedly been one of the worst computers and support I've received from a company. HP really needs to step up their displays as well, the display is utter garbage.

My god that's expensive. I guess you get what you pay for. I found a rather well spec'd T430s on Lenovo's site for 900 dollars. Maybe I'll bite the pillow and pay for the Ultrabay battery and call it a day. A 14" laptop with two hard drives, discrete graphics and a quad core is absolutely incredible though.

You're going to hate yourself if you get the T430 and think it will have a 'nice screen'. Well, you have 30 days to send it back to Lenovo when you realize how miserable the screen is.

Thanks for sharing, Noto. That was a very informative post. You should de-cloak more often.

In talking to my (much) better half, the bottom line is that she wants less clutter. I take that to mean no big monitors, no docks, and a minimum of external devices on the (small) desk we will purchase for the laptop to sit on when not being used on a lap. I guess that is the key, this will mostly be used on someone's lap and occasionally on a small desk.

In that case, a 14" or 15" laptop with a nice lcd panel seems ideal. Most of my requirements still hold:

Less than 5 lbs Minimum 900P vertical resolution i5 or i7 Sandy- or Ivy Bridge dGPU would be nice (but not absolutely necessary)

If you want a 14" or 15" laptop with a nice built-in panel, you have exactly 5 options. These are the only 5 laptops you can buy today which have IPS panels in the 14-15" size:

Out of sheer curiosity I went to HP's website and configured an 8450W with the 1080p "DreamColor" IPS panel, discrete Nvidia Quadro K2000M GPU (business version of Geforce GT 650M with DDR3), the Intel Core i7-3610QM, and a Blu-ray drive. The total came out to $3,400. I admit it, I laughed. Sure, if you are a traveling graphics or photography professional who needs 92% of Adobe RGB color gamut in a laptop, then I guess this is your only laptop option. For the rest of us, how about no.

The HP Envy 15 and VAIO S15 will cost you between $1,000 and $1,400 depending on what you put inside them. Both laptops use the same LG-sourced 6-bit IPS panels. 6-bit isn't exactly anything to write home about until you look at the awesome quality TN panels in all the other 14-15" laptops you can buy these days. Then you'll understand why the Envy 15 and VAIO S15 are the best choice for your requirements. There are always HP coupons floating around which knock the price of the Envy 15 down, so don't ever buy one at full listed web price. The Sony laptop currently comes with a free PS3, so you can sell the PS3 when you get it and call that your discount. That's a lot easier to stomach than $3,400.

The Retina MacBook Pro is a curious beast. You get two configurations, one that is $2,300 and one that is $2,700. For this price, you can get a machine with the now-famous Retina display, a 2880x1800 IPS display. As with the Retina iPhone and iPad, the resolution is not accidental. It's exactly 2x the vertical and horizontal resolution of 1440x900. Assuming that smooth icons and text are the top priority for you when you buy a laptop, nothing can beat the RMBP. So let's talk about what the RMBP doesn't have. When you buy the RMBP, you need to be sure that the configuration you select will last until you buy your next laptop. NOTHING on the RMBP is replaceable or upgradeable. The RAM, the SSD, the CPU, the battery, everything is fixed. What you buy is what you have, forever. Buying an RMBP is just like buying an iPhone or iPad in that regard. The RMBP does not come with an internal optical drive nor can one be placed inside it. For most people this isn't a big deal but be aware you won't be using it to watch movies without an external optical drive, not that Apple will allow people to play back Blu-ray anyways on Mac OS X. You'll need an external optical drive and a Windows installation to watch Blu-rays. The RMBP has only minimal ports, and lacks a few things people might find essential such as Ethernet. In a sense, the RMBP is the world's most expensive appliance because of it's total lack of upgradeability and limited connectivity. But hey, Dat Retina Display.

Thanks for the analysis, TFR. Have you played with either of the below, which I discovered on a trip to Microcenter yesterday?

Asus NV56 - better specs than the S15 almost all around except I don't think the 1080P panel is IPS, but viewing angles looked good. Also, it is a bit heavier.

HP Envy Spectre 14" - This was sitting right next to a Zenbook Prime, and although the Prime had it beat on resolution, the Spectre's screen (color, blacks, whites, and brightness), IMO, was miles ahead.

My god that's expensive. I guess you get what you pay for. I found a rather well spec'd T430s on Lenovo's site for 900 dollars. Maybe I'll bite the pillow and pay for the Ultrabay battery and call it a day. A 14" laptop with two hard drives, discrete graphics and a quad core is absolutely incredible though.

You're going to hate yourself if you get the T430 and think it will have a 'nice screen'. Well, you have 30 days to send it back to Lenovo when you realize how miserable the screen is.

Coming from a low quality display on a lenovo x61,I'm familiar with the unmatched quality of their 50 cent TN panels. I'm mostly concerned with how well the HD4000 graphics will handle civilization V and the keyboard oh god that keyboard. What were they thinking?

Asus NV56 - better specs than the S15 almost all around except I don't think the 1080P panel is IPS, but viewing angles looked good. Also, it is a bit heavier.

NV56 is part of their gaming laptop line I think. Asus laptops are made of plastic and feel cheap, but otherwise I haven't heard anything terribly awful about them compared to other consumer-grade laptops.

Quote:

HP Envy Spectre 14" - This was sitting right next to a Zenbook Prime, and although the Prime had it beat on resolution, the Spectre's screen (color, blacks, whites, and brightness), IMO, was miles ahead.

The first-generation Envy Spectre 14 had an IPS display. Subsequent ones did not. If that one is a first-generation, it's a rare beast indeed. It says the display is Radiance HD+ Infinity LEWD-backlit display, you might research and see if that's the IPS. I love how the display is LEWD-backlit though, is it excellent for porn?

That one is a bit old, the 8570w is the current 15.6" one, and yes it does have the DreamColor IPS display as an option. (and yeah the price is ZOMG CRAY CRAY LOL...)

Sadly (and as expected ) the 14" version, the 8470w, does not have such an option.

Quote:

HP Envy Spectre 14" - This was sitting right next to a Zenbook Prime, and although the Prime had it beat on resolution, the Spectre's screen (color, blacks, whites, and brightness), IMO, was miles ahead.

As I said, I saw a Zenbook Prime and the Spectre sitting next to each other. Subjectively, the Spectre's screen was more vibrant - the colors popped - whereas on the Prime, the colors looked more muted or even dull. Maybe the contrast was down on the Prime. I'm going to swing by Microcenter again and do another "eyes on" test.

The thing about the Spectre is that I can get the best deal on the Sandy Bridge model. However, since it will always be limited to the Intel-based graphics (HD 3000), I'm hesitant. I've read at Anandtech that the HD 4000 has near twice the performance of the 3000, so I'm tempted to go for an Ivy Bridge system if I am limited to using an IGP.

Yeah I am that guy. I tried to go mobile only and went with a Sony Viao. Sony price $1500 first gen i7 720 It is awesome however I realized something it does not replace a desktop at all. Graphics card which was a dedicated geforce was pretty terrible and hot it would burn the crap out of anything it sat one never put this thing on your legs no matter what. I ended up buy a new desktop a year later for $1000 to do more video intense applications.

I now run a thinkpad and a custom gaming and streaming and encoding PC

The thing about the Spectre is that I can get the best deal on the Sandy Bridge model. However, since it will always be limited to the Intel-based graphics (HD 3000), I'm hesitant. I've read at Anandtech that the HD 4000 has near twice the performance of the 3000, so I'm tempted to go for an Ivy Bridge system if I am limited to using an IGP.

For realistic gaming uses even the HD4000 is going to be limited to low resolutions and settings in most games except really old ones. This is one reason why AMD Trinity is so awful but that's a whole different discussion we could have.

For really serious gaming you'll either have to spend more money (possibly a LOT more!) on a laptop designed for gaming, or you will want to split your funds and buy a smallish laptop for portability and build a nice gaming desktop PC.

As I said, I saw a Zenbook Prime and the Spectre sitting next to each other...I'm going to swing by Microcenter again and do another "eyes on" test.

I went back and did some more comparisons, and sure enough, the Zenbook Prime's screen is better. Colors, viewing angles, and even angle of opening are all better. I have now rocketed the Zenbook Prime up to the top of my list. I wish it came in a 14" form factor, but so be it.

Now I have to decide between the unit with the dGPU (UX32) or the one with the HD 4000 (UX31). I know the UX32 model has upgradeable RAM and HDD. I probably would only update the RAM, if anything. My current laptop has 4GB and it serves me very well. I have never had a program close or suspend due to insufficient RAM (and I run a lot of programs at once, but no VMs). I also like the larger size of the UX32.

Edit: I don't do serious gaming on a computer. I have a Steam account and the only things I have purchased are both Portals and Magic the Gathering. I rarely play those as it is.

The Geforce GT 620M on the Zenbook Prime UX32 is a pretty terrible discrete GPU. But if you want the 1080p IPS display I think you have to get the UX32. At that pixel density you'll be scaling everything to 150% though, just so you are aware.

I don't know how good a UX31A would be for video editing though as it has a tiny number of expansion ports. If you want a 256GB SSD you *have* to buy the i7 version as well. It's a good computer otherwise, it's stylish and light.

I replaced my desktop rig with an x230 after realizing I was sick of the fan noise, the amount of space it took up and that the only games I play anymore are indie stuff that can run on just about anything. With a miniDP -> active DVI adapter driving my 2560x1440 monitor and an expresscard device which adds two eSATA ports, the only thing I find wanting is maybe another USB port or two. Absolutely the right decision for me.

One minor quibble is that the mobile HD4000 doesn't have enough horsepower to smoothly scroll a 2560x1440-sized Firefox window. Ironically only IE9 was able to pull off this feat so I got in the habit of using it (sandboxed) for casual browsing. A somewhat rough transition for someone used to having NoScript enabled but IE's content filtering option helps to some degree.

Thanks for the analysis, TFR. Have you played with either of the below, which I discovered on a trip to Microcenter yesterday?

Asus NV56 - better specs than the S15 almost all around except I don't think the 1080P panel is IPS, but viewing angles looked good. Also, it is a bit heavier.

This thread has been wonderful, a great summary of options to look over since I'm in the market for much the same thing (except with a discrete GPU of at least 640M level required). I almost pulled the trigger on the XPS 14, but I held back over screen worries. Now the NV56 excited me - until I saw it was 6 lbs, a bit more than my old one. Instead, I might spend a bit more to get a bit less, the Gigabyte U2442N at half the weight, whenever it arrives in the next month or so. It definitely carries more value than the $1199 Dell. It's tough though, the 650M and 1080p on the Asus are so tempting...

Sad thing is, I spent a while looking for equivalent AMD laptops and couldn't find any that weren't a pile of cheap junk, other than the CPU and GPU.

AMD is a complete non-competitor in notebooks these days. Intel realized how important notebooks would be a long time ago and created the Centrino platform branding to capitalize. Now they have a stranglehold on notebooks, which is the only segment of the PC market which is really growing.